The New York Times film reviewer A.O. Scott has an almost unprecedented influence thanks to the popularity of both the paper in print form and the massive distribution it has online (emphasised somewhat by the fact that a lot of the paper disappears into a pay-per-view archives after a few days). Last month he completely dismissed The Hulk which, for me, was completely unjustified. Today, in his review of Terminator 3 he does a similar number. Scott at his cynical best:

For all the hype and the inevitable (and most likely short-term) box office bonanza, "Terminator 3" is essentially a B movie, content to be loud, dumb and obvious, and to leave the Great Ideas to bona fide public intellectuals like Keanu Reeves and the Hulk. Mr. Schwarzenegger, whose main contribution to American culture has been inspiring wicked parodies on "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons," acts (if you can call it that) with his usual leaden whimsy, manifesting the gift for uttering hard-to-forget, meaningless catchphrases that is most likely the wellspring of his blossoming reported desire to seek elective office in California.

Personally, I loved Terminator 2, so I can only hope Scott is as wrong about this one as he is about The Hulk. Unfortunately the Australian release date of July 17th means I'll have to wait an extra fortnight to find out!

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After almost four years of constant blogging, the last post to Ponderance (this blog) was made on March 11, 2007. These archives will remain live indefinitely (or until Google starts deleting inactive blogs), but please update your links and come and visit my new blog at Tama Leaver dot Net.

Tama Leaver

I teach in the Department on Internet Studies at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia. I blog, I teach, I research, I tweet, and a few other things, too ...

Everything you want to know about me (and that I want to share) can be found at tamaleaver.net.